Dynamic Retargeting and Instagram, Together at Last

Starting today, Dynamic Products Ads (DPA) are finally available on Instagram, meaning it’s now time to retarget potential customers on Instagram as well as Facebook. Have they seen one of your products but not yet added it to their cart? Have they added your product to their cart but not yet purchased it? Follow their intent and move them up the funnel, by showing them the right creative in the right placement – which now includes Instagram.

Just a few months ago, in September 2015, Instagram opened its platform to all advertisers.

Smartly has been there since the very beginning, guiding our clients on how to get the best results and also assisting the Instagram team as they worked to develop a better product. We started by supporting the Link Clicks, Video Views and Mobile App Installs objectives, before slowly adding more objectives (e.g. Website Conversions) and more ad formats (Carousel Ads).

More recently, Placement Optimization has been helping our clients to get better performance by running their campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network together. Smartly has been running a few tests with some clients and the numbers are clear: for direct response objectives, placement optimization drives down CPA and increases conversions.

One thing was still lacking, though: the Product Catalogue Sales objective. But now that DPA are supported on Instagram as well as Facebook, a major piece of the puzzle is now in place. No extra changes are needed on your website or product feed. With one click you can add Instagram as a placement on your next dynamic retargeting campaign and target your potential customers also when they are on Instagram.

“Using dynamic ads on Instagram, Smartly.io helped Lazada make the most of cross-device marketing while efficiently expanding its reach and increasing its app user base,” says Alexandre Breillot, Regional Head of Social Display at Lazada.

The amount of time people spend on their phones is increasing at a very fast speed, and one out of every five minutes spent on mobile are spent on either Facebook or Instagram (in some countries the ratio is one minute out of every four). Do you think your users are still watching TV? Think again: they are likely to be among the 400 million active users on Instagram, waiting to be inspired by either you or your competitors…

Maximise delivery and performance with dynamic image templates

Sometimes you simply have to show the product again to a potential customer and they will buy it. This is the power of DPA and that’s why it works so well: you are showing them what they already want. But watch out: in half of the product catalogues on Facebook, a majority of product images are the wrong size. As a result, retargeting ads for these products will not be delivered on Instagram, unless you resize them first.

This doesn’t have to be a huge pain though. And while we’re at it, you can do better than simply showing a plain product photo. You can reach out with a well-designed, appropriately-sized template that combines the product shot with important information. Show the price, add a discount, and apply some filters or other graphic elements to make the creative more appealing. This is not possible using Facebook’s native solution, but Smartly’s dynamic image templates can create spectacular ad creatives from your product catalogue, not only improving your CTR, but also pushing clients more quickly up the funnel to complete their purchase or install your app.

With the help of Smartly.io, leading South East Asian eCommerce platform, Lazada, used dynamic ads on Instagram that retargeted website visitors to drive installs of its mobile app. With its campaign, the eCommerce company saw a 60% improvement in cost per install compared to static app install ads on Instagram.